Hi guys
Need some Career & study advice please.
Im 29 years old, studied IT at Cape Tek back in the day, it was always my dream to become a programmer... but did not manage to complete my course due to various reasons and life did not work out as planned.
I then went to work as IT Techie for 5 years, and in that time i went on study in Finance direction part time... since entry level pay was more in some cases than with the years of techie XP i had, Techie is also felt like a dead end job with no real future. I studied Finances since i got a good deal on it and jobs are fairly in abundance and pay is good.
Finished my Financial Accounting qualification in December and was lucky enough to gain some job experience in finances as financial assistant for few months at local company, but although i could do the work... i don't really have a passion for it. It does not interest me as much as computers.
My contract recently expired and so im unemployed atm. doing the odd IT job for bit off extra income till I manage to find something new.
So given the above i have quite some free time and cash to spare and was wondering is it worth it to study to still become a programmer,with regards to getting a job and building a career doing it, or is my age against me and should i rather just stick with what i have and try and find a job as is. ?
I phoned a few colleges ECTU / CTU they are extremely expensive, like almost R50k a year... i don't have that type of money, and don't think going permanently back to study at Univ. or College is viable, so would have to be part time through something like Unisa or such.
Some people recommended me to New Horizons and IT Academy.
http://www.it-academy.co.za/software-development-bundle.asp
Not a bad price, but they do mostly distance learning, there was a 2 week trial period which i did, basically they just give you access to a site that shows you pages of the learning material and such and the course is one year...then you must still go and write Int. exams, they only give you certificate...almost like a proof of preparation for exams. Which seems a bit expensive and also all those languages in one year you will have to work your ass off.
I did some further research and looking towards this site... Interested in doing C#, JAVA,or PHP
http://www.intersoft.co.za/books/view/9780735676824
http://www.intersoft.co.za/books/view/9781118612095
Order and work through those two text books, and write the exams...since basically the same as the online courses just hell of a lot cheaper. and go and write the exams and get certified and seek a job, only thing is experience.
I think if worked hard and let's say 4 hours a day and most of the weekends through one could easily perhaps do it in a year or less.
The only thing im worried about is my age and no experience counting against me.
Any guidance / help will greatly be appreciated.
Thanks for reading and thanks in advance.
Need some Career & study advice please.
Im 29 years old, studied IT at Cape Tek back in the day, it was always my dream to become a programmer... but did not manage to complete my course due to various reasons and life did not work out as planned.
I then went to work as IT Techie for 5 years, and in that time i went on study in Finance direction part time... since entry level pay was more in some cases than with the years of techie XP i had, Techie is also felt like a dead end job with no real future. I studied Finances since i got a good deal on it and jobs are fairly in abundance and pay is good.
Finished my Financial Accounting qualification in December and was lucky enough to gain some job experience in finances as financial assistant for few months at local company, but although i could do the work... i don't really have a passion for it. It does not interest me as much as computers.
My contract recently expired and so im unemployed atm. doing the odd IT job for bit off extra income till I manage to find something new.
So given the above i have quite some free time and cash to spare and was wondering is it worth it to study to still become a programmer,with regards to getting a job and building a career doing it, or is my age against me and should i rather just stick with what i have and try and find a job as is. ?
I phoned a few colleges ECTU / CTU they are extremely expensive, like almost R50k a year... i don't have that type of money, and don't think going permanently back to study at Univ. or College is viable, so would have to be part time through something like Unisa or such.
Some people recommended me to New Horizons and IT Academy.
http://www.it-academy.co.za/software-development-bundle.asp
Not a bad price, but they do mostly distance learning, there was a 2 week trial period which i did, basically they just give you access to a site that shows you pages of the learning material and such and the course is one year...then you must still go and write Int. exams, they only give you certificate...almost like a proof of preparation for exams. Which seems a bit expensive and also all those languages in one year you will have to work your ass off.
I did some further research and looking towards this site... Interested in doing C#, JAVA,or PHP
http://www.intersoft.co.za/books/view/9780735676824
http://www.intersoft.co.za/books/view/9781118612095
Order and work through those two text books, and write the exams...since basically the same as the online courses just hell of a lot cheaper. and go and write the exams and get certified and seek a job, only thing is experience.
I think if worked hard and let's say 4 hours a day and most of the weekends through one could easily perhaps do it in a year or less.
The only thing im worried about is my age and no experience counting against me.
Any guidance / help will greatly be appreciated.
Thanks for reading and thanks in advance.
